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Adolf Eichmann was born in Solingen, Germany. He was raised in Austria. He joined the Nazi party in 1932, moved back to Germany in 1933 and into Himmler’s SD the following year. He was promoted SS Obersturmbannfuehrer in 1941 and he supervised the deportation of Jews from all Nazi occupied areas to the death camps in Poland. Working always as a desk jockey he was so little known that, even though he was arrested by the Americans in 1945, he was only interned and escaped to Argentina in 1946.The Israeli’s kidnapped him from Argentina in 1960. He was tried and sentenced to death in 1961 and executed in Ramleh Prison May 31, 1962.

1912

Adolf Galland, WW2 Air Ace and Germany’s youngest General was born.

1978

The UN General Assembly passes Resolution 425 calling for the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon. UNIFIL was established.

1988

During the funeral of Caoimhin MacBradaigh, a member of the IRA who was killed at Milltown Cemetery on March 16th, two British soldiers, Derek Wood and Robert Howes, dressed in civilian clothes drove into the funeral procession. They were dragged from the car, stripped, beaten and killed.

2003

Operation Iraqi Freedom began with cruise missile and air attacks on Iraqi targets.

Thomas Fisher, a member of the Molly Maguires, was hung in Pennsylvania one of 19 miners of Irish descent to be executed that year. He was convicted of the murder of Morgan Powell a mining company supervisor.

1815

Napoleon Bonaparte entered Paris to rule as Emperor again, though this time for only 100 days, culminating in the Battle of Waterloo.

1890

Kaiser Wilhelm II sacked his Chancellor, Otto Von Bismarck. Bismarck was the man who had engineered the unification of Germany into one state dominated by Prussia. And we all know where that got us.

1920

A Constable McMurtagh of the RIC was killed in Cork. Two hours later a group of masked men arrived at the house of Tomás MacCurtain, Mayor of Cork - and a leading member of the IRA. Two men pushed past his wife and went straight upstairs to a bedroom where they killed MacCurtain. The killers were believed to be members of the RIC avenging their dead comrade. The leader was supposed to be District Inspector Oswald Swanzy. An inquest returned a verdict of wilful murder against Swanzy and also - for good measure - against the British Prime Minister, the Viceroy of Ireland, and the Inspector - General of the RIC. Swanzy was transferred to his home town of Lisburn, where he was murdered a few months later.

1921

5 RIC men were wounded in Mullinahone, Co. Tipperary. They were Head Constable Neary, Constables Doyle, Kinsella, Roberts and Woodford.

1964

Brendan Behan died aged 41.

1976

Patty Hearst, heiress to a fortune was convicted of bank robbery. She is probably the most famous example of Stockholm Syndrome. She was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army and eventually joined the gang.

1993

The Provos struck another decisive blow for Irish freedom by killing two children in Warrington. The victims were Jonathan Ball age 3 and Tim Parry age 12. The man who ordered the murders is Sinn Fein’s director of elections in Wexford.

1999

The Serbian army launched a big offensive in Kosovo north of Pristina.

1918
The Great German Offensive began on the Western Front. Heavy German artillery hit all areas of British front occupied by Fifth Army, most of the front of Third Army, and some of the front of First Army, at 4.40am. The main weight of attack was between Arras and a few miles south of Saint-Quentin.
The barrage concentrated on British artillery and machine-gun positions, headquarters, telephone exchanges, railways and other important centres of communications.
German infantry began to attack between 7.00am and 9.40am under cover of dense fog. New infiltration tactics used specially trained storm troops to probe forward through gaps in British defences regardless of what was happening either side, while follow-up units besieged and engaged British posts and defended villages. Many of these held out, and only fell once entirely surrounded and hopeless.
By noon the Germans had captured Fifth Army's Forward Zone with the exception of the garrisons of the edoubts that were still holding on even though surrounded. The troops that had been holding the Forward Zone were mostly lost, killed or taken prisoner as they were quickly surrounded by the enemy who had moved up unseen in the fog.
The ferocity of the fighting is demonstrated by the casualty lists below.

Irish VC winner on 21/3/1918

Second Lieutenant Edmund De Wind, 15th Bn Royal Irish Rifles, from Comber, Co. Down was awarded a Victoria Cross for holding his platoon position at Racecourse Redoubt, Groagie, France for seven hours. He was wounded twice and on two occasions he had to lead men out of his trench into heavy fire to clear it of enemy. He died of his wounds that day. A street in Comber is named in his honour. The blasted Canadians have the cheek to claim him also as he worked in Calgary from 1910 to 1914 when he enlisted in the 31st Bn, Canadian Expeditionary Force. He was commissioned in April 1917 into the RIR.

1945

Second Lieutenant Claud Raymond son of a Co. Kerry family, was awarded a VC for his part in a diversionary attack in the Arakan area of Burma. Wounded three times in fighting the Japanese, Lt Raymond refused medical assistance until his men had been treated and they had begun to withdraw to their landing craft, when he finally collapsed. He died of his wounds on March 22nd.

All the above units were in the 16th Irish Division which suffered 563 fatalities on 21 March 1918. This represented approximately 10% of the divisional infantry. The 16th Division was in constant contact with the enemy until April 4th by which time it had suffered 7, 149 men killed, wounded and missing. The strength of the division was 1,278 all ranks. This was a little more than a full infantry battalion.

At Sebastapol in the Crimea Sgt George Gardiner, 57th Foot, led a counter attack to recapture trenches from a Russian sallying party. Another display of courage during an assault on the town in June led to his being awarded the Victoria Cross. Born in Co. Down in 1821 he died in Lifford, Co. Donegal in 1891.

A Ballymena man won the VC at the same place and date. Pte Alexander Wright of the 77th Foot, distinguished himself in repelling an enemy attack on his position and in further actions in April and August. He died in Calcutta in 1858.

1907

General James Gavin was born. He commanded the US 82nd Airborne Division at Nijmegen and in the Battle of the Bulge.

1941

German aircraft sank the Irish registered vessel, St Fintan off the Welsh coast. She was en route from Drogheda to Cardiff when attacked and sunk 7 miles off the Pembrokeshire coast.

1963

The Profumo scandal hots up with John Profumo the British Minister for Defence denying sleeping with Christine Keeler. Ms Keeler was also sleeping with a Soviet military attaché at the time.

1968

After the Tet Offensive General Westmoreland was relieved as US commander in Vietnam. He was replaced by General Abrams.

1979

Two members of the IRA assassinated Sir Richard Sykes, British ambassador to the Netherlands, and his 19-year-old footman, Karel Straub, outside his residence at The Hague.

It was a bad year for British establishment figures- Airey Neave and Lord Mountbatten were murdered also.

1981

Patsy O’Hara (INLA) and Raymond McCreesh (IRA) began their hunger strikes in the Maze Prison.

1983

Irish-born Chaim Herzog was elected president of Israel.

2003

US and British forces were well inside Iraq and Basra was surrounded. Two RN helicopters collided over the Persian Gulf killing 7 personnel.

Died

1915

5739 Sgt John O’Brien, 3rd Bn Royal Irish Regt. Died at home in Clonmel Co. Tipperary.

11208 Pte John Ross, 2nd Bn The Royal Scots. KIA Western Front. From Waterford.

Queen Elizabeth I died after 45 years on the throne of England. James VI of Scotland became James 1 of England, uniting the two crowns and initiating a century of civil war and conflict in England, Scotland and Ireland. Ultimately the two countries were, of course, formally united as the UK.

1909

John Millington Synge, playwright, died in Dublin.

1923

The Republican executive met in a cottage near the village of Ballymacarbry to discuss a truce in the Civil War. De Valera was for the proposal. Liam Lynch against. The truce proposal was defeated 6 votes to 5. Due to Free State Army activity in the area the executive had to split up. Some were captured within a few days. Lynch had just over 2 weeks to live.

1944

The Great Escape- the event on which the book and film were based- took place when 76 Allied fliers escaped from Stalag Luft 3 in Germany.

1968

An Aer Lingus plane, the St. Phelim, crashes into the sea near Tuskar Rock, Co. Wexford, with the loss of all 61 passengers and crew.

Sgt Nicholas Alkemade of the RAF bailed out of a Lancaster bomber without a parachute, which had been shredded by shrapnel. He fell 18,000 feet and survived, he landed in a Fir tree and then into a snow drift.

1957

The signing of the Treaty of Rome founded the European Economic Community.

Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, was appointed to command Queen Elizabeth’s troops in Ireland. Unfortunately for the Earl he was well out of his depth. He undertook a pointless campaign in Munster, where one of his culverin balls lodged in the wall of Cahir Castle and is still there today. Turning to Ulster he was tricked into a truce by the Earl of Tyrone and he then abandoned his army and returned to England. Elizabeth was not pleased. In disgrace he plotted a rebellion with James VI of Scotland and with his successor in Ireland, Lord Mountjoy. Captured and sent to the Tower of London he was beheaded on February 25th 1601.

1625

Charles I was crowned King of England, Ireland and Scotland. He was beheaded in 1649.

1650

Kilkenny surrendered to Oliver Cromwell.

1839

John Ballance was born in Glenavy, Co. Antrim. At twenty-four, he married Fanny Taylor. Her poor health encouraged them to emigrate to New Zealand. John founded the Evening Herald, later called the Wanganui Herald. He entered Parliament in 1875 and held the posts of Colonial Treasurer (1878), Minister of Lands, Native Affairs and Defence(1884-7) and Liberal Prime Minister (1891-3). He worked to improve relations with the Maoris and was instrumental in giving women the vote, making New Zealand the first country in the world to do so.

1872

Mary McSwiney was born in London. She was the sister of Terence Mcswiney. Like her brotehr she became a Republican, joining Sinn Féin, Cumann na mBan and working for Women's Suffrage. She was interned after the 1916 Rebellion and elected to Parliament for SF in 1918. The SF candidates formed the first Dáil in 1919 after this election. She opposed the 1921 Treaty and was imprisoned in Mountjoy and Kilmainham during the Civil War, spending 24 days on hunger-strike. She dies in 1942.

1917

28 year old Lt Frederick Harvey of Lord Stratcona's Horse, earned a Victoria Cross at Guyencourt, France when he captured a German machine gun position, single-handed.

Lt Harvey was born in Athboy, Co. Meath. Despite this fact he is claimed by the blasted Canadians. Harvey also earned a Military Cross in 1918 and rose to the rank of Brigadier. He is one of three VCs who played for Wanderers Rugby Club in Dublin.

1999

A US F-117A stealth fighter was shot down over Yugoslavia during a NATO airstrike. The pilot was rescued by US forces.

2003

During Operation Iraqi Freedom a British armored unit destroyed 14 Iraqi tanks trying to break out of Basra. Meanwhile ships attempting to land supplies at the port of Umm Qasr had to be halted after Iraqi mines were discovered in the shipping channel.

Died

1915

9061 Pte James Hearne, 2nd Bn Royal Irish Regt. KIA Western Front. He was from Waterford.

1916

4414 Pte James English, 9th Bn Royal Munster Fusiliers. KIA Western Front. He was from Waterford.

Sir William Howard Russell was born in Tallaght, Co. Dublin. He was the Times' "Man in the Crimea"

1854

Britain and France declared war on Russia, starting the Crimean War.

1879

At Zlobane Mountain, during the Zulu War, Waterford-man Pte Edmund Fowler of the 2nd Bn Scottish Rifles accompanied a Lieutenant and a Captain up a narrow path to a cave held by Zulu warriors. The Captain was killed in the attack but Fowler and Lt Lysdon cleared the cave of enemy soldiers for which action they each received a VC.

Major William Leet from Dalkey Co. Dublin earned his VC at Inlobana while serving with the 13th Foot, for rescuing a dismounted member of the Frontier Light Horse under enemy fire.

Terence MacSwiney, SF Lord Mayor of Cork, was born. He died on Hunger Strike in London in 1920.

1898

The US Supreme Court ruled that a child born in the United States to Chinese immigrants was a U.S. citizen, and therefore could not be deported under the Chinese Exclusion Act. Michael McDowell please note.

1939

The Spanish Civil War ended.

1944

Nell McCafferty, journalist, writer and feminist, was born in Derry. Her favourite subject is Nell McCafferty.

The Dublin Steam Packet Company’s ship SS Royal Adelaide en route from Cork to London, sank in storm on the Tongue Sands, off Margate with the loss of all passengers and crew.

1855

At Sebastopol in the Crimea, Private William Coffey of the 34th Foot picked up a live shell, which had fallen into his trench, and threw it over the parapet saving many lives. For which act he was awarded a Victoria Cross. William Coffey was born in Knocklong, Co Limerick, in January 1829 and died in England in 1875.

1859

The Irish Times was published for the first time.

1869

James MacNeill, Governor-General of the Irish Free State from 1928 to 1932, was born in Glenarm, Co. Antrim.

1873

Peig Sayers, the nmost miserable woman in Ireland, ever, was born in Dunquin, Co. Kerry. Thousands of Irish school-children have cursed that day.:D

1879

After yesterday’s victory at Hlobane, 20,000 Zulu tribesmen attempted to finish off Colonel Henry Evelyn Wood’s column at Khambula.About 2,000 British and Colonial troops including the 90th Light Infantry, Edmund Fowler’s unit, were dug in and ready for them. The assault ended in defeat for the Zulus.

1886

Coca Cola went on sale in Atlanta for the first time.

1912

Polar explorer Capt. Robert Scott, sheltering from a storm in a tent near the South Pole, madethe last entry in his diary. It read "the end cannot be far."

1971

Lt. Calley was convicted of murdering 22 Vietnamese civilians in the 1968 My Lai massacre. He spent three years under house arrest.

1973

The last US soldiers left South Vietnam.

1999

NATO bombing of Serbian forces in Kosovo continued. Albania and Macedonia appealed for help as they were swamped by refugees fleeing Kosovo. Montenegro claimed that over 30,000 refugees had taken asylum there. NATO said Serbs were targeting ethnic Albanian leadership for executions and the US accused Milosevic of crimes against humanity. Montenegran President, Milo Djukanovic, made a plea for an end to the NATO bombing campaign.

Henry VIII divorced his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, in defiance of the Pope. This event led to the Reformation and has buggered Irish history to this day.

1603

At the Battle at Mellifont, the English army under Lord Mountjoy beat the Irish army commanded by Red Hugh O'Neill, the Earl of Ulster. Red Hugh finally called it a day, ended the Nine Years War and submitted to English rule, meeting Mountjoy at Mellifont Abbey.

1814

The Duke of Wellington’s Army occupied Paris.

1851

A census showed the population of Ireland to be 6,552,385: it has declined by one-fifth (2.1 million) since 1845. At the same time the number of Irish in England and Wales has increased by 79% since 1841. Nearly a quarter of Liverpool and over 18% of the people of Glasgow and Dundee were Irish-born.

1873

Richard Church, from Co. Cork, soldier and "liberator of Greece," died in Athens.

1880

Sean O'Casey, playwright, was born. His plays portrayed the gritty side of life in Dublin’s slums where he was born. Nationalist, Socialist, Protestant and largely self-educated, his first plays (The Shadow of a Gunman, Juno and the Paycock, and The Plough and the Stars ) were set during the 1916-1923 period and, unusually, did not depict the mythological version of the periods events. He died in 1964.

1979

The INLA killed Conservative MP Airey Neave with a bomb planted in his car. It exploded as he left the underground car park of the House of Commons. Neave was a close friend of Conservative leader, Margaret Thatcher and Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary. The bombing was supposed to have occurred to coincide with the announcement of a general election, the day before. The Conservatives went on to win and Margaret Thatcher became PM. On a military note Neave was captured during the retreat to Dunkirk in 1940 and became the first British Officer to escape from Colditz Castle.

1981

John Hinckley Jr. shot and wounded President Ronald Reagan in Washington apparently because he had a crush on Jodie Foster. I find that hard to believe. Ashley Judd maybe, but not Jodie Foster. :D The object of his affections went on to win a best actress Oscar this day in 1992 for “The Silence of the Lambs”.

Boatswain, Cornelius Farley, Merchant Navy. Aboard the S.S. Induna. Age 36. Son of Cornelius and Catherine Farley, Kinsale, Co. Cork. The Induna was part of Convoy PQ-13, sailing from Reykjavik, Iceland to Murmansk, Russia and was sunk by U-376 in the Barents Sea with only 19 men surviving the attack and 4 days adrift in a lifeboat. 31 crew died in the sinking.

Seven women from Island Magee, Co. Antrim were imprisoned and pilloried for 'bewitching' a woman named Mary Dunbar, who had experienced strange fits and visions.

1790

A quarrel between John Philpot Curran (MP for Kilbeggan) and Robert Hobart (MP for Portarlington) resulted in a duel in which Hobart allowed Curran to fire and then refused to return fire.

1855

Charlotte Bronte, whose father Patrickwas born in Ireland, died.

1871

Arthur Griffith was born in Dublin. He founded Sinn Féin in 1905.

1965

The US ordered the first combat troops to Vietnam.

1991

The Warsaw Pact went out of existence.

1992

The U.N. Security Council branded Libya a terrorist state.

2003

Things were heating up nicely as Operation Iraqi Freedom entered Day 13. US-led troops fought pitched battles with Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard within 50 miles of Baghdad. B-1, B-2 and B-52 bombers struck communication and command centers in Baghdad, and cruise missiles set Iraq's Information Ministry ablaze. The US had lost 40 soldiers KIA, with 25 captured or MIA. Britain had suffered 25 dead. Things were still not going well at Umm Qasr.
Meanwhile American troops at a checkpoint between Karbala and Najaf shot and killed 10 Iraqi women and children when a van failed to stop. NBC sacked reporter Peter Arnett after he told Iraqi television that the US war plan against Saddam Hussein had failed. Arnett got a job with the Daily Mirror.

An EU peacekeeping mission in Macedonia began without an Irish input because the mission was not a UN sponsored one due to a Chinese veto in the Security Council. And the reason was that Macedonia had recognised Taiwan as a sovereign state.

Sorry about the delay in posting but my computer is in dock at the moment.

April 1st

1730

Samuel Boyse, MP for Bannow, died as a result of a duel at the age of 33.

1776

Edward Hand, born in Ireland, was appointed a Brigadier General in the Continental Army.

1815

Otto Von Bismarck was born in Prussia. He engineered the unification of the German states into a united Reich under the Prussian Kaiser Wilhelm I.

1839

St. Clair Mulholland was born in Lisburn, Co. Antrim. He was a Union General in the American Civil War and a holder of the Medal of Honor.

1911

The Titanic was launched in Belfast.

1918

The Royal Flying Corps was renamed the Royal Air Force.

1945

150,000 US soldiers and marines invaded Okinawa.

1970

The US Army charged Captain Ernest Medina for the My Lai massacre in 1968. Medina was Lt Calley's company commander.

1979

Iran became an Islamic Republic after the fall of Shah Mohammed Pahlavi.

1986

The US Navy announced that on March 13 a Ballistic Missile Submarine the USS Nathanael Greene (SSBN-636) struck the sea-bed about forty miles south of the Isle of Man, in the deep water channel off Dublin Bay, causing major hull damage. Immediately, a major sea rescue operation was launched, in great secrecy, to save the vessel and its crew of 140 men. To make matters worse the sub was carrying a full cargo of Poisedon nuclear missiles with multiple warheads. After two days the vessel was salvaged and towed to the base at Holy Loch, Scotland. After further repairs it was escorted back to its home base. Damage to the Nathanael Greene was so serious that the vessel was de-commissioned in December 1986. It was struck off the US Navy list the following month. This actually assisted the US in complying with the SALT II Treaty and a stay of execution for the USS Alexander Hamilton, the intended sacrificial lamb.

Quite possibly this was the most serious nuclear incident in Irish coastal waters and posed a major environmental risk to the whole Irish sea and the Irish eastern seaboard. To this day no detailed information on the accident or of any nuclear leak or pollution to the Irish Sea has been made public by the US Navy.

The Nathanael Greene must have been an unlucky ship because in 1984 she lost her propellor off the coast of Anglesey and she had to be towed to harbour then also.

Arthur Prince of Wales and son of Henry VII died. His widow Catherine of Aragon subsequently married his brother, the future Henry VIII.

1871

Census Day in Ireland. The population was 5,412,377, 285 of whom were Jews. I find that rather surprising.

1879

Lt Walter Hamilton from Co. Kilkenny, serving in Afghanistan with the Corps of Guides led a Cavalry charge against superior numbers of enemy. He also came to the rescue of a wounded trooper who was being attacked by three Afghans. Lt Hamilton was later awarded the Victoria Cross.

1914

Cumann na mBan was formed.

1982

Argentina invaded the British-owned Falkland Islands. The subsequent war would end on June 14th at a cost of the lives of 655 Argentinians and 236 British servicemen. The defeat of the Argentinians also spelled the end of the ruling miltary junta of Leopoldo Galtieri.

1998

A 1000lb bomb was intercepted in Dublin Port bound for Britain.

2003

US forces crossed the Tigris River in the drive towards Baghdad. In the process they the Baghdad Division of the Republican Guard. Saddam Hussein declared that victory was at hand.

Junior Engineer Officer Henry Atkins, Age 22, he was the son of Thomas and Alice Atkins, Dublin.

Able Seaman Patrick Sheehan. Age 27. Son of Patrick and Annie Sheehan, Berehaven, Co. Cork.

The M.V. Melbourne Star was sunk by U-129 south-east of Bermuda en route from Britain to Panama and Australia. There were only 4 survivors of 112 men aboard. On the 5th of October 1940 she had been bombed by German aircraft west of Achill Island, Co. Mayo and suffered some damage. The following July she was torpedoed on a convoy to Malta.

At Jhansi, during the Indian Mutiny, Private James Byrne from Dublin, serving with the 86th Foot (Royal Irish Rifles)assisted Captain Henry Jerome in rescuing, under very heavy fire, a Lieutenant who was severely wounded. James Byrne was, himself, wounded in this act. Both men were awarded the Victoria Cross.

Also awarded a VC for his courage with the 86th that day was Pte James Pearson, who, single-handed, attacked a group of rebels, killing one and bayoneting two others. He was himself wounded in the attack. He also brought a wounded comrade into cover under heavy fire.

Elsewhere during the attack on the Jhansi Fort was Cpl Michael Sleavon from Fermanagh, who was with the Royal Engineers. Under heavy fire, he continued work on the sap he was digging and was awarded the VC.

Finally a man calling himself Frederick Whirlpool won a VC serving with the 3rd Bombay European Regt, which would later become the Leinster Regt. His real name was Frederick James and his award was for rescuing several comrades who were wounded and under fire. He performed a similar deed a few weeks later. Whirlpool was wounded no less than 17 times in the mutiny. On wound almost decapitated him.

1882

Bob Ford shot Jesse James in the back. The second most famous outlaw in history was dead.

Vol Jerome Lyons was shot dead in Kickham Barracks, Clonmel while being interrogated by a National Army intelligence officer. The officer claimed Lyons grabbed his revolver. It was in all probability a summary execution.

1970

Garda Richard Fallon was murdered by Saor Éire terrorists during a bank robbery in Dublin.

NATO was born, consisting of the US, Great Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy, Portugal, Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Canada. It provided for mutual defense against aggression and for close military cooperation.

1968

Martin Luther King was assassinated by James Earl Ray while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.

Richard the Lionheart died in France of an arrow wound. He was shot by an archer from the castle of Chaluz, which his troops were besieging.

1858

Pte Patrick Carlin of the 13th Foot, from Belfast was awarded a VC for rescuing an Indian Corporal at Azumgurh in India. He used his injured comrades sword to dispatch a mutineer on the way.

1941

Germany invaded Yugoslavia and Greece.

1980

A major confrontation started between the South Lebanon Army and Irish UNIFIL troops in At Tiri, Lebanon. The conflict would last a week and result in several Irish deaths.

1992

In northern Bosnia fighting commences between Bosnian government troops and ethnic Serbs. Sarajevo was besieged. The conflict was engineered by Slobodan Milosevic, the President of Serbia and Radovan Karadzic, leader of the Bosnian Serbs.

Died

1915

3935 Shoesmith Frederick Johnson of 6th (Royal Inniskilling) Dragoons on the Western Front. He was the brother of Mr. A. Johnson, of 41, Barrack St., Waterford and is buried in Longuenesse Cemetery, St Omer, France.

Sgt John Morrissey from Cashel, Co. Tipperary, serving with the 1st Bn Royal Irish Fusiliers in Tunisia, took command of his platoon after his Pln Commmander was wounded and led it in an attack on a German position. He won a Military Medal.

1980

In At Tiri, Lebanon, Pte Stephen Griffin was shot in the head and wounded by the SLA. Capt Adrian Ainsworth went to retrieve his body and was later awarded the Military Medal for Gallantry.

1989

The Komsomolets, a Soviet nuclear submarine, sank in the Norwegian Sea after a fire. Of the 69 men aboard 42 died.

1994

The 100 day Rwanda genocide commenced after the President was killed in a plane crash. Members of the Hutu tribe massacred thousands of Tutsis, including the Prime Minister, Agathe Uwilingyimana, andher Belgian Army escort.

was at tiri very serious seeing as there were plenty of medals handed out and two men on the UNIFIL side died? from what ive read of it recently it seems to have been a stand-off that flared up now and again, just to stop the sla from moving into a village.
am i just over-simplifying things?